Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Appendix part 3

(this is part 3 of the appendix adventure so go back and read part 1 and 2 before reading this one)

After spending time in recovery.... recovering ...I was taken back to my room. First of all the room was a two person room (I'm fine with that because I understand the need to put two people in a room) that was smaller than the one person room that I had at central baptist hospital. The poor nurses had no space to work on the two of us. They were constantly bumping into one another in frustration and had to maneuver this and that to tend to us. It was horrible working conditions for them.

However, I heard that they are remodeling soon so that everyone will, in the future, have a private room.

By that time in the evening Roger had been up with me all Sunday night, all monday morning and I insisted that he go home to sleep. no one at the hospital even offered him anything....a pillow....a drink....a blanket......NOTHING. He ended up spending the night Sunday sitting in a plain desk chair, hunched over my bed. I sent my parents to my brothers house to sleep on his couch.

It made me sad that we weren't seen as people but as case studies.

The nurse I had in the "holding cell" as they called it, was wonderful. She did as much she could to help.

The nurses in recovery were AWEFUL and ignored me anytime I tried to ask something.

The nurse I was given for the night shift was wonderful but her fellow nurses and the tech was horrible:

I rang the bell for help to go to the bathroom The other nurse walked in, rolled her eyes, expressed that she had 15 other patients to take care of before asking what I needed. "I'm so sorry to bug you. I just need to go to the bathroom and I can't get myself up" She rushed me out of the bed, slung my iv thing at me in order to get me to walk faster to the bathroom and then once I stepped one foot in the bathroom (before I even sat on the toilet) she shut the door. I yelled "hey, can you wait just a second I just have to pee a little and I'll be done. I'm really dizzy from the medicine." She yelled through the door "No, just pull that string for help when you get finished." Of course as soon as my small little tinkle was done I felt bad for having to pull the string to bother anyone so I walked my dizzy, vomity, painful self back to the bed, plugged my iv machine back into the wall (boy was that painful to bend over after abdominal surgery) and slowly managed to get back in the bed.

The woman I was sharing a room with had been in the hospital for 3 weeks. I sat up in the bed at 4am on Monday night and listened to her horrible story of how she ended up there. It really put things in perspective .......I was lucky to not be going through what she was going through and I was MAD that the hospital wasn't giving her better care.

Man Alive

Tuesday morning I was anxious to meet with my doctor (who ever he was) to talk with him about all of this stuff that had been going on with me. At that point I had only heard things from other doctors, nurses, my parents, and my husband. I really wanted to talk with THE doctor that stepped in, took my case and pretty much saved my life.

I waited ......... a young doctor came in to check on me that I had never seen before.

I waited ........ another young doctor came in to check on me that I had never seen before.

I waited .......... an older doctor came in to check on me that I sort of remembered

I waited....another young doctor came in to check on me that I had never seen before and he had no clue what I was even there for so had to explain. ??????

I waited ......... my handsome husband/minister showed back up around 11am.

I waited ....I heard small rumors that I would be sent home but still hadn't talked to my doctor.

Roger walked out into the hall to get some ice water for me when he bumped into the awesome surgeon dude, Dr. Phillip Chang, THE doctor. He spoke with him about me and was informed that he was getting my discharge papers ready along with a prescription for augmentin and percocet.

I waited for the doctor to come in to see me.

He never came.

I left the hospital without speaking to him. I was confused and I'm still confused.

When we got home we noticed that I had only been given the percocet prescription and not the augmentin .......BIG OH NO. I have that horrible infection to fight inside and I NEED that medicine. Now, keep in mind that I wouldn't have even know about the infection if I hadn't been prying for information about myself. No one was telling me anything.

Roger and I were so pissed off by that point.

The hospital called it in to our pharmacy.

I was in so much "after surgery" pain because the nurse didn't give me anything before I left and I had to be driven all the way back to winchester and get the prescription filled before getting any relief. By the time I got the percocet in my hand I had had to wait so long before doses that I was throwing up with chills and cramping in a horrible way. It took at least 8 hours to really get the pain under control (two doses. two pills every four hours)

Why oh why

Now, on to some positive things:

My mother in-law has taken the kids to somerset for a while so i can recover.

My parents were able to come up to lexington to stay with me while I went through surgery.

My brother Jacob was able to come hang out with me after surgery (sorry for flashing you Jacob) and bring me flowers and a card from Shannon AND bring Roger dinner.

Karen, Madge and Ruthie came to see me and that put a BIG smile on my face! It meant the world to me.

The new interim minister at First Christian, where Roger used to work, stopped by to see me in the hospital and the folks at First Christian Church are making Roger dinner tonight to bring to the house.

I have had several friends offer to help in any way they can and believe me, I am going to use them and try not to abuse them :) WE really do need a lot of help.

Roger was able to stay with me today ALL DAY and care for me because the folks at Living Faith Baptist Fellowship offered to take care of prayer meeting tonight. He had to leave for a few minutes to work on this loan thing for the new house but that is it. I am so thankful for that because I really could not have managed myself here alone.

THE NEWS SO FAR:

I was told that until December 3, 2010 I was NOT allowed to pick anything up that weighed more than 2ibs.

That means, I can't take care of the kids and I can't pack to move (we were suppose to pack this weekend because the house should be done friday).

I also am not allowed to eat anything really. I am on a clear liquid diet the rest of this week. Next week I can start eating things like oatmeal and then the following week I can try a plain cooked chicken breast.

OUR OPTIONS:

Once I can go for a longer car ride I'll probably go to somerset to stay while I recover so my family and Roger's family can help with the kids. So Roger can get some work done.

I'm not sure what I am going to do about my seminary class that meets every Tuesday from 6 to 9pm. hummmm?

A lot of people at living faith have offered to help us move so I am not even going to worry about that. Roger can manage the packing with a little help. I have pretty much finished with the de-cluttering part. We just need a LOT of boxes.

A little REcap of the past 2 years:

1. I was put on bedrest for 3 months because my placenta abrupted and I almost lost Anna. I was 6 months pregnant at the time and I only made it to 8months before she was taken by emergency c-section

2. In May I was sent in to get a brand spanking new pacemaker

3. In October our whole little family got deathly ill with vomiting and diarrhea. Then our water heater went out, flooding our basement of the house we are trying to sell, forcing us to get a brand spanking new water heater.

4. I just got my appendix taken out.

It has gotten pretty comical hasn't it?

The next two years are sure to be much better than the past two years!!!!

They have to be or ............ i will go cRaZy.

PS: The last time I took a shower was Sunday morning. It is wednesday afternoon and I have no desire to bathe. yuck? I know! I have managed to wash my face and brush my teeth. Maybe Roger can give me a shower....how romantic?!?!